Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether all new regulations are subject to impact assessments, particularly in relation to their regional impact and impact on small businesses.

Where government intervention requires a legislative or policy change, departments are expected to analyse and assess the impact of the change on the different groups affected.

Impact assessments are generally required for all the Government's interventions of a regulatory nature that affect the private sector and-or civil society organisation or public services. The Better Regulation Framework requires regulatory provisions with impacts on business of greater than +/-£10 million to be accompanied by a final impact assessment which is laid before Parliament alongside the regulations. These assessments must consider impact on small and micro businesses, explore whether such businesses need to be in scope and, where appropriate, identify mitigations for the additional burden. Provisions with lower impacts should provide a proportionate assessment or estimate of the impacts in the accompanying Explanatory Notes or Memorandum.